Tarkanian Will Sue NCAA, Attorney Says

Nevada Las Vegas Coach Jerry Tarkanian filed a counterclaim against the NCAA on Monday, accusing the agency of “enforcement atrocities” in a 20-year vendetta to drive him from college coaching.

The 77-page action is in response to an NCAA lawsuit filed in November which seeks to overturn Nevada’s due process law. The due process case is scheduled for trial next month in U.S. District Court.

“The fact of the matter is the NCAA is an organization that’s out of control,” said Santa Ana attorney Terry Giles, who filed the Tarkanian suit with Las Vegas attorney Chuck Thompson. “They have ruined Coach Tarkanian’s career.”

Tarkanian announced in June that he would quit at the end of this, his 19th season as head of the Runnin’ Rebels basketball program.

The resignation came 13 days after publication of photos showing three former players with convicted sports fixer Richard Perry.

Tarkanian currently is the nation’s winningest college coach, in terms of percentage, and could retain that title if his club wins 20 games this season. The Rebels are 7-2.

The Rebels are banned from postseason play this season as a final resolution of a battle Tarkanian has had with the NCAA dating to 1977.

Giles said he would seek a court order in connection with the suit to overturn the NCAA’s decision to ban UNLV from postseason play this season. Giles said the ban was the result of wrongful conduct by the NCAA.

The counterclaim, which asks for punitive damages, charges that the “fraudulent, malicious and oppressive” conduct of the NCAA has caused emotional and financial harm to Tarkanian and his wife, Lois, who is a counterclaimant.

Named as defendants are the NCAA; Walter Byers, former executive director of the NCAA; David Berst, chief of the NCAA’s Enforcement Division, and Robert Stoup, an investigator in the Tarkanian case.

The action quotes Berst as telling witnesses “I’m going to get Tarkanian if it takes the rest of my career.”